The legislation would mandate that adults be released into the country until their legal cases are properly adjudicated.

Harris, Merkley and Cortez-Masto defended the attack on America’s borders in a statement that read:

“This is a crisis created by this administration and has resulted in thousands of children being ripped from their mothers and fathers,” said Sen. Harris. “Government should be in the business of keeping families together not tearing them apart. A stunning lack of transparency and accountability has left thousands of children in need of reunification. That must happen immediately. We are better than this.”

“Trump’s policy to deliberately inflict trauma on the children of families fleeing persecution is a dark and evil deed,” said Sen. Merkley. “We must close this chapter and do so immediately. This legislation, the REUNITE Act, creates a roadmap to move with urgency to reunite the more than 2500 children Trump has separated from their families, and to treat these families with respect and decency as they await their hearing on their asylum claims.”

“I am proud to partner with Senators Harris and Merkley to introduce this bill to ensure families torn apart by the Administration’s cruel policies are reunited immediately,” said Sen. Cortez Masto.

“…It would require the Trump administration to immediately reunite separated children with their parents, ensure that separated children have access to legal counsel and contact with their parents, and creates a presumption of release on alternatives to detention, ensuring families are not detained as they pursue legal avenues of relief,” Cortez Masto stated.

Currently, President Trump’s policy is to detain families together to eliminate the possibility of illegal aliens skipping their court date and remaining in the country at large.

This is a crucial component of President Trump’s plan to secure the border and crackdown on illegal immigration.

Kevin McAleenan, who is the head of U.S. Customs and Border protection stated, “Only about 5 percent of the people [who are] released [from detention] ultimately end up being removed, even if they get a final order of removal for immigration purposes.”

McAleenan compared those numbers to when illegal aliens are detained prior to their court date.

“Immigration processing can be done fairly and relatively quickly [and] the detain docket for the immigration courts moves in about 45 days on average …. for those in ICE custody,” McAleenan stated.

But this bill is bad news for Chuck Schumer.

If Democrats want to fight the midterms over immigration and “catch and release,” they are playing a losing hand.

A recent Harvard poll found 55 percent of Americans oppose catch and release.

And the one issue that is guaranteed to motivate the GOP base to turnout is immigration.

By supporting “catch and release,” Schumer and the Democrats may have just sealed their own doom in November.